Thousand Dollar Baby

Ralph Carter and His Lawyer, Earl Faunteroy Jr. walked into the courtroom immaculately dressed...They both looked like bankers...Ralph Carter looked like the smug jackass he was....And then I came in with both of my attorneys, Olivia and Beverly.....

It was funny, The judge, a Black man in his 70's and Ralph's attorney, Earl  Faunteroy Jr couldn't take their eyes off of my attorney, who was also my wife, Olivia Bennett-Alexander  or her niece, Attorney Beverly West...They were both smiling at them as though we were in the bar or something...Olivia did have on a tight form fitting mini-skirt that was hugging every damn curve...I can't say that I blame them.

Fellow trumpet player, Downtown Rob Brown also came to court...He was a charactor witness for me...He too had had to take Ralph Carter to court to get out of one of his oppressive contracts...He had been the only person to ever beat Carter in court...I was planning on being the second one...

Ralph Carter grimaced when he saw Downtown Rob Brown....There was no love lost between these two men.Downtown Rob Brown stared at him and then smiled slightly...Ralph Carter turned his head away...

Olivia smiled and whispered in my ear...

"His lawyer is Earl Faunteroy Jr...This should be a piece of cake." she said...

I had never heard her this cocky before...My wife is very analytical and plans everything right up to the last detail...She takes nothing to chance...

"You know him?" I asked..

"Yes...Quite well...He wanted to date me once...He fell for me hard....You think Larry North is on Beverly tough...Well this guy was crazy about me...I almost threatened a restraining order before he stopped..."she said smiling.

"I take it you weren't interested."I said.

"No!! He's married!!!" she said.

"Ohhhhhhhh." I said and laughed...

He may have been , but he watched Olivia's every move like a hawk...and just grinned like a cheshire cat...It was the same with Beverly.....

It was a non-jury trial.....I didn't like that, But Livy and Bev said that in this kind of case, it was the best...They didn't have to convince twelve people ,just a judge and from the way he was ogling them both ,that didn't seem like it was going to be a problem...Whether he heard their arguments or not...Hell, the opposing attorney wasn't putting up much of an argument....At times, I thought he was on our side!

As my wife and her niece argued my case, I was nearly moved to tears...Four years before,I didn't know either one of them....and now I was married to the lead attorney and close enough to the second to think of her as a niece or a daughter almost....

The trial lasted three days......On the third day....The judge made his ruling...

"I have heard both arguments and I am ruling on behalf of Mr. Alexander....This contract is indeed oppressive and in many parts illegal...I declare it void and for you to pay the plaintiffs all of the monies owed to them." he said and slammed his gavel down....

Ralph Carter was not a happy camper!

"WHAT??, WHAT??? WHATTTTTTTTT??  YOU OLD HORN DOG...YOU WERE LOOKING AT MRS. ALEXANDER'S BODY THE ENTIRE TRIAL......WHAT THE HELL KIND OF RULING IS THAT?" he screamed to the top of his lungs..

"Mr. Faunteroy, I advise you to restrain your client...He is very close to contempt!!"said the Judge...

"Ralph...Ralph...calm down man." said Earl.

" FAUNTEROY, YOU'RE FIRED!!! YOU INCOMPETANT JACKASS... YOU COST ME A LOT OF MONEY!!! CONTEMPT!! I HAVE CONTEMPT, YOU HORNY OLD GOAT JUDGE ,YOU'RE A JACKASS!!" screamed Ralph Carter...

"OKAY...Thats it!! I charge you with contempt of court....Perhaps 72 hours in the county lock up will teach you some manners Mr. Carter!..BAILLIF...TAKE HIS ASS TO JAIL.WHO IS THE JACK ASS NOW, YOU POMPUS ARROGANT BASTARD!!"screamed the judge and we watched incredulously as the bailiffs dragged Ralph Carter out the door, stomping his foot, kicking and screaming to the county jail for three days.....I had to laugh...because that meant that he couldn't fulfill his contract with Josies....Which meant they did not have to pay him for the remainder of the week...

" YOU HORNY OLD MAN, JUDGE ,YOU'RE A JACKASS!!" screamed Ralph Carter...

"You better be glad we are in court,because if I ever see you on the street or in a bar ,I'm gonna put my foot square up your-"Screamed the judge...

"Your Honor!!!!" screamed Olivia in horror!

He stopped and smiled at her....

"I'm so sorry baby...He just tried my patience.." he said...

Downtown Rob Brown and I embraced...and gave each other dap!

 ''So glad you got out of that contract man...He was doin the same jive to me..Docking my pay for the least little thing...Your wife is great, she got the entire band off the hook...I know those guys...They hated him and they were glad to be of help.." said Downtown Rob Brown..

I hugged Olivia and Beverly and kissed Olivia in the lips ,right there...She saw Ralph Carter's lawyer, Earl  Faunteroy Jr looking her way and winking and she grabbed me and gave me a very passionate kiss...So much so that it made Beverly and Downtown Rob Brown blush and look away...Earl Faunteroy Jr. got the message...He grimaced and stomped his foot in anger and stormed out of the courtroom...The judge was eyeing Beverly's rear end and smiling broadly...He shook his head and slowly exited the courtroom smiling sheepishly....

"You're a lucky man bro." said Downtown Rob Brown..."I'm bout ready to sky up....Nice meeting you Bev, Olivia...Be Easy Donnie Ray."he said...

''Always babe!" I said.

"Same here."said Beverly...

She turned to her Auntay and me....

''Wow...Your friend, Downtown Rob Brown is cute...If I wasn't going out with Nelson...I'd certainly be interested in him."said Beverly, smiling...

"Yeah...He's good people." I said.  I put my arms around both of them...

"Well girls...This calls for a celebration...How bout I take you girls out for a fine dinner tonight..Your choice?" I said.

"I'd love to D.R....But I uh have to uh do that little thing tonight.."said Beverly...

Olivia and I looked at her...

''Ohh yeah with Mr. North..." I said ,laughing..

..

"Did you contact Pakistani Sam?" asked Olivia.

"Oh yeah, everything is in place."said Beverly..

I wished I could be there to see it....

I looked at Olivia and said-

"Well old girl..Looks like it's just me and you." I said.

"Perhaps we can discuss my payment?" she said and blew softly into my ear and kissed me on the cheek...

I smiled sheepishly...Just thinking about hours of un-inter-rupted lovemaking back at our place...Who needed to eat dinner?

"Yesss....Let's go back home and uh discuss that...With some wine and soft music..."I said.

"Ummmmm sounds like a plan." said Olivia.

II-

Hours later, Beverly and Larry North had had an incredible dinner at a very pricey establishment and had then retired to the lounge area upstairs at Minks..

Minks , from what I was told was  a very tony bar with high end clientel... Politicians,Doctors,Lawyers,Businessmen and gangsters hung out there...Larry North was spending big cash to take Beverly to a place like this...Cash he really didn't have...But he was playing the big shot tonight.

Ever since he had heard what he thought was Beverly and Nelson breaking up on the phone through what he thought was a well placed wire in Nelson's apartment...He had been making moves...First, a bouquet of Red roses...

Next, nice pleasent little phone calls...Then finally visits to the office...He'd pretend like he came to see all of us..Sharing shop talk and small talk...Then he'd eventually get around to Beverly...

He took her to lunch three times in the past week...She wouldn't go drinking with him....She allowed him to come upstairs once to where she lived....

But she made it clear that there wasn't going to be anything popping off...He was on his best behavior...

Then finally, She agreed to go out to dinner with him and go drinking afterwords.....All along, Larry had no idea that Beverly knew all about the private detective he hired to bug Nelson's apartment and follow him and the guy at the PPA, an old flame of hers who was Larry's client who got Nelson's car towed  and who then slashed his tires a few nights later...Larry had no idea that Nelson and Beverly had not broken up...that the entire phone conversation had been staged for his benefit, hoping to draw him out...It had..

So tonight..Beverly was looking incredible...Rocking a new hairstyle and a dress that had a split in the side and left very little to the imagination...I had never seen this dress before...and I have to admit..It was hard for me to avert my eyes when she stepped out in it..

Larry damn near fainted when he saw her...Olivia had worked feverishly to get her hair just right and had called Josie over to put the finishing touches on it..She looked stunning...

"Wow! Minks....I've heard of this place...Can't believe I'm actually here." said Beverly..

"Yeah babes...If you stick with me, you'll go to a lot of places like this....That lightweight guy you were with could never take you places like this."he said..

"That's not nice Larry, Nelson is a very nice guy.."said Beverly...

"Yeah, No doubt, he is.....I remember him from our days as Public defenders..He was a very smart, A very good attorney...but he's below your paygrade babes...Time to move up in life."said Larry...

There was one other couple in this upstairs lounge and they were making out something terrible in the corner..

A waitress came up and Bev and Larry ordered drinks...Larry eyed Beverly's sexy body like a hungry wolf...He said nothing..finally their drinks arrived...

Larry eased over close to Bev and put his arms around her...She didn't move them this time...So he ran his hands up her legs...Again,she didn't move them...So he inched his hand up her dress...She in turn ran her fingers delicately over his crotch area of his pants...As she expected, he was as hard as a rock!!!...

She smiled...

"Ouuuuuuu..what's that there?" she said in a babyish voice...

"Something that wants to get to know you better..."he said and kissed her on the cheek... She kissed him softly on the lips...He quivered....

"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..." He moaned....He was close to exploding...It was all he could do to control himself.

''So Larry?" she asked.

''Yeah baby?" he said, nibbling on her ear and kissing her cheek.....

"How did you know that Nelson and I broke up?"she asked..

"Oh...talk goes around, news travels, you know....ohhhhhhhhhhhhh" he said ,moaning.

"Yes, but you had flowers at my office almost the next day...."she said.

"I uh..I uh ,I uhh still keep in touch with a lot of the attorneys at the uh ruh Public Defenders office...You uh know how they uh talk right?" he said.

"But I don't...I don't tell them my business...and Nelson doesn't work there anymore and he doesn't talk to any of them either...Auntay and Donnie Ray didn't even know..." she said. and blew softly in his ear...At this point his eyes were rolling into the back of his head...He tried hard to keep his cool....

"I do see Josie around...Maybe she might have uhhhh mentioned it.." he said.

"Oh..Well I'm gonna have to talk to her."said Beverly... She knew Josie hadn't seen him, She would have told her and she knew Josie would never betray a confidence..

"Forget about it babes...Forget about him." said Larry who leaned over and kissed Beverly softly again....

Just then...A Black man in a white suit and a white man in suits with trench coats and shiny wing tip shoes walked up....

"You Attorney Lawrence North" asked the Black  man...

Larry looked up...

"Who wants to know?" he asked.

"I'm Agent Felton Thompkins....The Legal Ethics Enforcement Board." he said

 flashing a phony badge and equally phony ID.

''What?"asked Larry...

Agent Thompkins pulled out a plastic bag and poured out it's contents ,A GPS tracker , a micro listening device and a cloned cell phone on the table.. He also pulled out photographs, which he also laid on the table in front of them.

"I believe these are yours.....You hired this man, Alan Spade, a private investigator to follow and listen to this man, Nelson East , an attorney recently.." said Agent Thompkins...

Beverly looked horrified...

"Oh My God Larry, You didn't!!" she said...

''Now wait a minute Bev..I-I-I-I can explain..."he said....His erection was now effectively ,deflated...He was sweating profusely...

"I'm sure you had your reasons...We don't care about that...but what we do care about is that you had one of your clients, This man, a Leroy Payton , who is employed at the DMV,boot and tow this man's car illegally and levy several charges against him.....and to make matters worse.."he said and then snapped his fingers...

The man with him pulled out a tablet and showed a video of a black hooded individual slashing the tires of Nelson East's car the next night..

"You had this man commit a misdemeanor...a crime...We've already taken his statement...And we've talked to the Private investigator you hired....What you've done here could have your law license censored and possibly taken.AND YOU COULD GO TO JAIL!!" said Agent Thompkins...

"OH MY GOD LARRY...This is low, Even for you."screamed an outraged Beverly...

"Baby please!!!...Please baby please!!!!...Let me explain!!!!..." said Larry...

"And I was gonna give you some tonight too." said Beverly, now in tears....

Larry looked as if he'd drank a can of paint!

 

"MISTER NORTH, Come with us." said Thompkins...

"Oh My God!!!!..Oh My God!!!!..."said a now frightened Larry North...He could see his career flushing down the toilet...He could see himself locked up!! He was terrified!!

"Of course....I uh could uh work something out with you..."said Agent Thompkins...

"What? , What do you want?" asked Larry North...

"One thousand dollars!!....And I  uh, could make this all go away....Forever." he said.

"One thousand dollars? Wait a minute. I feel like I'm gettin hustled here...One Thousand dollars??"said Larry...giving him the serious side eye...

"Or you could sit before the board tomorrow morning and explain all of this.As they snatch your license to practice law and possibly lock you up...I saw your car, You finished paying on that? And that's a real nice Apartment complex you live in....How much is your monthly rent going for?" said Thompkins...

"Alright...Alright..."said Larry, who peeled off $1000.00 in cash out of his wallet and passed it to Thompkins...

"You guys are blackmailin crooks ,as dishonest as they come." he snarled...

"This coming from YOU, Mr. North?" said Agent Thompkins...

Larry looked at Bev, who appeared to be sobbing uncontrollably...He felt bad....

"Good day Mister North, You'll not see us again or hear anything else about the matter" he said and he and the other gentleman promptly left...

Unfortunately, the wrong person had already heard about it...Beverly!!!

Beverly looked at Larry, who was now bowed in shame...with total disgust!!!

"Oh My God Beverly..I-I-I am soooo sorry, it's just that- Uh...Let me explain, this whole thing just went wrong...I-I-I never meant for you to be hurt...Not at all..." he said.

"Don't say anything else to me Larry...I'm done...We are done!!" she said and grabbed her purse and got up and left...

''Bev...Wait...Wait! I can still take you home...Let me explain..Please Baby,Please!!!....Baby, Please! PLEASE, BABYYYYYYYY!   PLEASE!!" he said..as she walked down the stairs and out of the Lounge..

The waitress walked over to him...

"Your bill sir." she said.

"Fifty five dollars?" he said...looking at the bill..

"And forty nine cents"said the waitress...

"We only had three drinks?" he said.

"Yeah, well you knew what kind of place this was when you came here...This aint no cheap joint!" she said.

"I'll say." he said.

"I just saw you peel a G off to those cops...I'm sure you got it."she said.

He had no cash left in his wallet, but he passed her a credit card...

"No wonder baby girl left....Big spender!!"said the waitress...giving him the serious side eye.

He ran outside...but Beverly was nowhere to be seen!!!... How could she have gotten out of sight so soon? he wondered...

Beverly was actually three blocks down the street... A car drove up...Agent Thompkins got out...He looked at Beverly,she looked at him and they both busted out laughing....

Agent Thompkins was really Pakistani Sam, con man extroidinaire and a one time client of both Olivia and Beverly...

He passed her an envelope...It contained $400.00..

''Easiest  short money I ever earned in my life!  Here, This is your end...I already paid my guy his end.. Damn, girl, you was so good, you should've been working my line of work.." he said laughing so hard his sides hurt..

"I'm a Lawyer, I kind of do work your kind of work." she said.

They both fell out laughing again and hugged each other...

"Damnnnn girl, you're right at that...I can't believe he fell for it so easy...but then again...Look at you!!...You're enough to cloud any guy's mind..."said Pakistani Sam..

"Oh you old con man, stop it."said Bev..

"I aint lyin about that...You are beautiful....You want me to drop you off somewhere?" he asked..

"No..Donnie Ray and my Auntay will be here shortly." she said..

"Tell Livy I said Hi." he said as he got back in the car and pulled off!

III-

Olivia and I laughed so hard when Beverly told us about what happened that I had to pull the car over and just let us get it out....

''Oh My God....Ohhh My God...Ohhh My God...The .The Legal Ethics Enforcement board...Oh My God and he fell for that? I'm surprised at Larry... Ohhhhhh My god.."squealed Olivia.

"What? There's no such thing?" I asked , thinking of Internal Affairs in the police department.

"There is such a thing Donnie Ray, but they don't have special agents and they don't come out late at night looking for people...They're not cops! And how would they know he was at the bar with me?  I can't be with a guy that dumb!"said Beverly...

Then it was my turn to laugh and slap my thighs....

"He's not that dumb! In a few days ,he'll figure out that he got took ...but one, he'll be too ashamed to say anything to you about it and now that he knows what you know...He won't want to risk you reporting him to the actual board if he did decide to make a stink about it...Well played Little Robin..."I said.

Beverly smiled....I hugged her and kissed her forehead...

"Could you guys drop me by Nelson's apartment?" asked Beverly....

''Sure baby"said Olivia, still laughing and saying proudly- "That's my niece what pulled this off...Love that girl... " she said, still laughing...''Wait til we tell Josie.She will scream!"

Beverly beamed....

We stopped by Nelson's apartment...He answered the door...His eyes nearly dropped out of his head when he saw Beverly...

"WOWWWWWWWWW!" he said.

"Oh My God!!!Babes, You look, you look great!" he said.

Beverly passed him an envelope..

"What's this?" he asked.

"It's $400.00, that you had to pay for new tires on your car..." she said.

"Oh I can't take this from you.."he said.

"It's not from me..It's from Larry North.." she said.

"Larry North??" he said.

"It's a long story, go pack a bag and come on with us...You're staying with me tonight...and I'll explain it all to you in the morning."she said.

"In the morning?" he asked..

At this point,my wife Olivia interjected.

''Nelson?,Nelson East!!! Do you see how good my niece is looking tonight? Look at her hair, Look at this scandalous dress that she better not let her father know she even owns...Now do you really want to talk about Larry North on a night when she's looking like this, and asking you to spend the night with her ,Really?" she asked...

I looked at him...

''She's got a point man!" I said.

"Aint gotta tell me twice" he said and rushed to his apartment grabbed three suits and packed an overnight bag....He put his things in our trunk and the four of us pulled off into the Philadelphia night..

EPILOUGE:

Ralph Carter was released from the county jail three days later...He paid all of the musicians back the money he had docked them....He had missed his last three gigs at Josies so he had lost out on the income...No other area musician would work with him...He had been effectively blackballed!

He was forced to return to New York City...Hopefully ,he stays there!

A FEW DAYS LATER-

Olivia poured me a tumbler of coffee one morning a few days later....

''Wowzers, I thought Beverly and Nelson were going to break the legs off of that bed last night.." she laughed....

They were on each other almost as soon as Beverly put the keys in the door.. We could hear the kissing and moaning before we got to the top of the next landing to our floor.

"I was almost embarrassed at the noise those two were making....myyy goodness." said Olivia,laughing.

"That bed got a good working out last night." Olivia added.

"Yeah those two have really been making up for lost time...I saw his car pulling off this morning..I'm amazed he has the energy to drive home..''I laughed...

"He's young and in love...He has the energy." she said laughing as we sat and sipped our coffee.

"You'll never guess who I saw the other day?" said Olivia..

''Who?" I asked.

''Larry North..I ran into him ,coming out of court. It was all I could do not to laugh in his face...but I didn't want to let on that I knew about his little mis-adventure." said Olivia.

"Guess he didn't have much to say to you, did he?" I asked.

"Oh but he did..He asked me to tell Beverly that he was sorry and that every thing he did ,he did because that's how badly he wanted to be with her." he said.

'' The nerve...He should be apologizing to Nelson." I said.

"That's not hardly likely...He asked me if she and Nelson had gotten back together." said Olivia..

"What did you tell him?" I asked ,shaking my head at the gall of this man...

"I told him the truth!!!...I told him that their bed is squeaking so loud some nights that you and I can't sleep." she said.

"I'm sure that shut him up..."I said smiling.

"Oh it did...He walked away like a hurt puppy with his tail between his legs.....Told me that the Innocence Project called him and that he's headed out to California for awhile...To work on a case."she said.

"Hahahahahaha, To forget.....Although you know...It's not like you and I were ahhh, asleep." I said.

We had been carrying on ourselves something fierce those nights...

"Oh I know...but our bed doesn't squeak." said Olivia.....

''That's what you think...We hear yall too!." said Beverly, who was suddenly in the our kitchen...

I sipped my coffee and  poured a cup for Beverly and the three of us busted out laughing.....